Posts Tagged ‘swedish’

 

Beetroot salad

Friday, December 19th, 2008

Most people have probably already decided what they’re having for xmas dinner. I made my final list just two days ago, and our xmas meal is going to be on Monday with friends and family invited. Xmas food in Sweden consist of a huge smörgåsbord of food, usually mostly meat and cream, and all the dishes are always the same. What you put on your table for xmas varies a little between the different parts of Sweden, but most dishes are eaten all over Sweden. I had never had cabbage at xmas before I moved down to the south for example. Now I love it, especially the purple cabbage, but cooked in glögg.

My little sister Sofie’s favourite on the smörgåsbord is a beetroot salad that I was never been particularly fond of. It’s often eaten with meatballs, and likely on bread as a sandwich. This beetroot salad is one of the things I cooked today to put in the fridge. I quite enjoy it now, as I’ve gotten older my likes and dislikes have changed a lot, and it looks beautiful with it’s colours.

Beetroot salad for xmas

Beetroot salad:

  • 1 jar of sliced pickled beetroot (400 grams/14 oz without juice)
  • 2 green apples
  • 1 tbsp dijon mustard
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 2 dl (3/4 cup + 1 tbsp) vegan mayo
  • ½ dl (3 tbsp) soy yoghurt or soy creamer

In a bowl, whisk together the mustard, salt, mayo and soy yoghurt. Drain the beetroot and chop them finely. Peel and core the apples and chop finely. Add the beetroot and apples to the mayo and mix together. Let it sit in the fridge overnight and serve as a side or on bread with tofuballs as a Swedish open topped sandwich.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

 

Swedish style tofu balls

Monday, May 12th, 2008

I’m still here! Life has just been kind of shit lately and I’ve had a lot on my mind. Ever since my mum’s neck and arms got bad I’ve been feeling moody and things haven’t been great.

I’ve had fun times too. Lots of them! And these last two weeks have been sunny and warm. I’m a positive person, really!

Today we had a really lovely lunch. Every now and then I get cravings for Swedish food, like I used to have when I was younger and ate meat. Today was one of those days so I decided we’d have some tofuballs with lingonberries, potatoes and gravy. Boy, am I ever glad I made that decision.

Tofuballs, potatoes, gravy and lingonberries

It was a simple meal and didn’t take very long. I suppose most people can’t get lingonberries but these babies would be good with cranberries, or blackcurrant jelly… or a red onion jelly maybe. The gravy was just gravy granules mixed with stock, some milk and a little bit of soy sauce and black pepper. Potatoes are boiled and then lightly buttered and salted.

Delicious ‘Swedish’ Tofuballs: 4 servings

  • 1 pack of tofu 500 gr (17.5 oz)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 1 tbsp dried herbs
  • 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
  • 0.5 tsp liquid smoke
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 tsp marmite (optional)
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1/8 tsp allspice
  • Black pepper to taste
  • 0.75 dl (1/3 cup) breadcrumbs/panko
  • 3 tbsp gluten flour (vital wheat gluten)
  • Olive oil spray

Crumble the tofu and squeeze some of the water out. Chop onions and garlic finely.

Put all the ingredients in a big bowl and mix WELL. You want to work the gluten for a while. Form into smallish balls (the small ones are tastier!) and put on a baking tray with parchment paper. Spray them lightly with oil and bake them at 225C (440F) in the oven for about 25 – 30 mins. Take them out when they are browned and firm.

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Posted in Uncategorized | 15 Comments »

 

Simple cardamom cake

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

I love baking, and cooking too. But baking has a special place in my heart. The summer when I was 14 we moved to a new house and I didn’t have any friends. It was the summer holiday in between semesters and I just didn’t know anyone in this new place we lived. I spent the entire summer reading semi erotic fantasy novels (47 of them!) and baking cookies and cakes until we were all ready to burst from all the baked goods. I piled on the pounds but it was still nice. However, I didn’t bake this cake that summer, I know that for sure. It’s a very simple and incredibly tasty cardamom cake that requires little work but really delivers. I couldn’t get any good photos of it, when I last baked it the sun had already set and I am too tired to make a new one. Instead I give you this photoshopped version, it’s a cardamom girl cake!

Cardamom cake

This cake is really good just the way it is. Or you can slice it and serve it with some fruit salad and soy cream. Either way it’s absolutely delish! It’s an old fashioned Swedish recipe that doesn’t use eggs, so veganizing it was a no-brainer. It’s also not incredibly sweet but has fantastic flavour.

Cardamom cake:

  • 125 g (½cup) vegan margarine
  • 300 ml (1 1/4 cups) sugar
  • 2 tsp ground cardamom
  • 250 ml (1 cup + 2 tsp) soy milk
  • 500 ml (2 cups + 1 tbsp) flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder

Turn the oven on to 180 C. Melt margarine in a pot. Turn of the heat and add sugar, cardamom and milk into the margarine. Sift together the flour and the baking powder and add to the wet mix. Stir carefully with a whisk until the lumps are gone (but don’t overmix it).  Grease and flour a pan. It looks cuter in a bundt pan but a normal sponge cake pan will do just fine. Pour batter into a the cake pan and bake in the middle of the oven for about 45 minutes or until the cake is golden and a toothpick inserted to the centre comes out clean. When the cake is done, let cool for about 5 minutes then flip onto a plate. Remove the pan while the cake is still warm and let it cool completely. Let mature in a bag for a day before eating, it tastes even better if you do!

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Posted in baked goods, sweet, vegan | 14 Comments »

 

Vegan checkerboard cookies

Monday, October 8th, 2007

We were going to a party on Saturday night and everyone there was supposed to bring something baked and delicious. I made some pretty fab coconut cupcakes frosted with a lemon icing (from VwaV). As a present for the birthday girl I bought a nice stoneware jar, light blue with polka dots and filled it with simple checkerboard cookies. I spent the day slaving away in a hot kitchen, no time to wash my hair, put on make up or be fancy in any way. Although I did make up for that later, the photo shows a less charming me.

First a photo of the cupcakes. They were lovely and Alex ended up eating about a third of them.

Coconut cupcakes with lemon frosting

It never ceases to amaze me just how vegan friendly some of our old Swedish cookies are. I KNOW you have checkerboard cookies in other countries too, but it’s also a very Swedish thing. Many recipes are so simple, no eggs, no milk, just butter/margarine. Hey, that’s almost too easy! I flipped through a Swedish cookies and cakes classic, we’ve had it in my home since forever. In Swedish it’s called Sju sorters kakor. Not long ago they translated the book to English, it’s called Swedish Cakes and Cookies. This recipe is from that book, the only thing I changed was the margarine, mine’s vegan, theirs isn’t. It’s one of those recipes that doesn’t even belong to a certain author or anything anymore, it’s so old and well used it’s public property now. They’re not terribly sweet, but they’re lovely with coffee or tea.

Who needs to wash their hair, there are cookies to be made!

Swedish checkerboard cookies: makes LOTS and LOTS!

  • 450 – 500 ml (1 3/4 cups + 2 tbsp – 2 cups) wheat flour
  • 100 ml (1/3 cup + 1 tbsp) sugar
  • 200 g (2 sticks) vegan margarine
  • 2 tsp vanilla sugar or 1 tsp vanilla essence (but make sure to use a little more flour!)
  • 2 tbsp cocoa powder

Mix together the sugar, margarine and flour until it forms a ball. (Kind of like when you’re making a pie crust). Divide the dough in two parts and mix each part with a flavouring. One of the doughs with cocoa and the other one with vanilla. Divide each dough into two pieces and roll them out to two rolls (I made three of each because I am hardcore!). Put two different coloured rolls next to each other and put two more on top of that making a checkerboard pattern. Press it a little so the doughs stick together and wrap it in plastic film. refrigerate for a little while. Turn the oven on to 200C (390F). Take the log out of the fridge and cut into 3-4 mm (1/6 inch or so) slices. Put on a baking paper on top of a baking tray and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes. Let cool. Enjoy!

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Posted in baked goods, soup, UNhealthy, vegan | 10 Comments »

 

Tofu balls!

Tuesday, September 18th, 2007

The first tofuballs recipe I ever made was from a cookbook called Vegetarian nosh4students. The name is terrible and so is the book. The tofuballs were really good though but looking through it just now (Tania asked me where they were from and I was going to e-mail her it as I didn’t think I should post it) I realised the version I make doesn’t really have that much in common with the one in the book. I’ve heavily modified it. Anyway. These tofuballs are the bomb. I love them with a chunky tomato sauce.

Oh and btw, I don’t know what lamingtons are. They apparently like them in Australia. They’re also just like a Swedish baked treat that I love, Kärleksmums (love yumms!). It’s basically just sponge cake dipped in a chocolate frosting and then immediately dipped into desiccated coconut. They’re lovely. I got the idea from Shmooed Food a long time ago and when we had left over sponge cake from making the ‘trifle’ I thought we’d give it a go.

Tofuballs w tomato zucchini sauce

Tofuballs with awesomesauce:

Tofu balls – Serves 3 – 4 people. We usually only get three servings, but we’re chubby and like to eat much.

  • 1 large onion / 2 small ones, finely chopped
  • 2 small cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 pack of tofu 500 gr / 17,5 oz (18 or 17 works)
  • 1,5 dl (2/3 cup) of fresh breadcrumbs /1 dl (½ cup) ready bought
  • 1,5 tbsp flour
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • 3 tsp dried herbs (basil, marjoram, thyme, parsley, oregano, whatever rocks your boat, and is in the pantry)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Turn oven on to 190C or 375 F.

Just crumble the tofu and squeeze some of the water out. Chop onions and garlic finely.
If you don’t have breadcrumbs ready, mix some plain bread in a food processor to make crumbs.

Put all the ingredients in a big bowl and mix them well. Form into smallish balls (the small ones are tastier!) and put on an oiled baking tray. Spray them lightly with oil and oven them for about 25 – 30 mins. Take them out when they are browned and firm.

Chunky sauce - Serves 3 people.

  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 (400-500g / 15 oz ) can tomato sauce (that’s the smooth kind, not seasoned, not juice and not chunks)
  • ½ courgette
  • 1 yellow bell pepper
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 tsp herbs (thyme is good, or basil)

Chop everything finely. I mean finely! Heat up a pan with oil in and fry the onion and garlic for a few minutes. Add the courgette and the bell pepper and fry for another few minutes. Add herbs, salt and pepper and the tomato. Turn heat down and let simmer together for 5 mins or so.

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Posted in healthy, tofu, vegan | 13 Comments »

 

Swedish jamfilled thumbprint cookies

Saturday, August 18th, 2007

Yesterday was a lovely day. Alex and I went to Malmö with a very good friend to eat at the festival, spend money on nice jewellery and to shop and hang out at Aphuset. We got to meet Björn from Vegankrubb and tried some fake salmon with two different sauces. Maria and I agreed that vegans are sexy (in a totally platonic way of course). The fake salmon was absolutely delicious and we ended up buying some to make at home. My friend Maria was amazed at the store, it’s kind of like a supermarket but with vegetarian, vegan and organic food, and she ended up buying a bunch of stuff. We bought some of the things we normally do plus some really tasty sweets.

Anyway, the day was great with good food. I had a very tasty vegan lemon masala burger (the malmö festival is like manna from heaven for us veggies!)

Maria and I (looking kind of dumb)vegan lemon masala burger

Now, on to what this post was REALLY supposed to be about. Vegan thumbprint cookies, Sweden style. I’ve always been a lover of cookies and going vegan isn’t going to change that. Luckily, many of the classic Swedish cookies use no egg and so the other non vegan stuff is really easy to replace. This is a recipe that’s incredibly simple and veganizing it is so easy.peasy you don’t even have to think. I’ve looked at a couple of vegan thumbprint cookie recipes online, but most of them are nothing like these ones (for one, they have at least 10 ingredients, this one has only 5, they also have loads of complicated and hard to find stuff in them). These cookies are quite possibly my favourite of the ones from my childhood. they’re sweet, they melt in your mouth and they look good too. Plus, they’re easy to make.
Swedish jam thumbprint cookie Swedish jam thumbprint cookies:

  • 450 ml (just under two cups) flour
  • 100 ml (just under ½ cup) sugar
  • 200gr (7 oz) vegan margarine
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • raspberry jam

Turn oven to 175 C or 350F. Cream sugar, margarine and vanilla extract together. Mix in the flour and work into a dough ball. Fridge the dough for about 20 minutes. Roll the dough into about 30 little balls about 2 cm in diameter (or about an inch), flatten them a little and put on parchment paper on a baking tray. Make a little thumbprint in them (make the print bigger for more jam!) and fill them with some jam. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until they’ve turned just a little bit golden. Enjoy with some coffee in the company of good friends. Makes about 30.

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Posted in baked goods, UNhealthy, vegan | 18 Comments »

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